Tonight the Celtics' fate for decades to come will be determined by the random bouncing of ping-pong balls. OK, that's probably a little over-dramatic. Or is it? Via Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe, here are the thoughts of C's co-owner Wyc Grousbeck:

When we see what pick it is, the phones will start ringing and we’ll start answering the phones.

That KG deal might be once in a lifetime, but I think over the next four or five years, we will get back to being contenders, if not three years. I think we can get back there. I think this summer, one way or another, we’ll take positive steps, whether we just draft two players and continue to build, or whether we make a blockbuster deal.

We’ve done it before. We’ve won a championship. The pressure, to some extent, is off, because we’ve done that.

We know how to do that, and I have a lot of confidence that we’ll get back to that inner circle of contending teams, and then we’ll hope for luck to push us over the top.

We’re as well-situated to rebuild as any team in the league, I think. We’ve got a young core, a great coach, a great general manager, a bunch of picks [17 over the next five years, including as many as 10 in the first round], and the support of ownership and a fan base. I see this getting better, whether the lottery balls go our way [Tuesday] night.

Personally I think Boston is getting pick #6, and that's OK. Marcus Smart, Aaron Gordon or Noah Vonleh could all be great players. Plus it's a long summer, Kevin Love is out there, and there's all kinds of moves Danny Ainge could make. Remember what happened the last time the Celtics were in this situation? Here's what Grousbeck said yesterday about that 2007 lottery:

I felt really heartbroken for all the people that were there in the bars and sitting in living rooms around Boston hoping that we would get the No. 1 or 2 and we got No. 5. I felt like I let them down. Somehow, because you get in that lottery room, you somehow think it’s you. That’s why I’m not in the lottery room tomorrow.

Maybe it was somehow lucky after all. Danny [Ainge] somehow turned the fifth pick into a championship. We’ll see what he has to work with after [Tuesday].

Regardless of what happens tonight, the C's future can still be bright.